Massive amounts of rain have caused extensive flooding along the Front Range of Colorado. Boulder and adjacent communities have fared the worst, but there has also been flooding in many communities. Estes Park, Lewisville, Longmont, Loveland, and Aurora are some of the hardest hit.

According to Craig Carr, ministerial director for the Rocky Mountain Conference, three members of the Boulder Seventh-day Adventist Church have lost their homes; one couple from Lyons, and an individual who lives in Jamestown. Both Lyons and Jamestown were completely cut off from emergency access because of roads being washed out by floodwaters.

There was minor damage at the Boulder Church. There is also some reported damage in the basement at the Estes Park Seventh-day Adventist Church, but the extent is not yet known.

Blake Jones, pastor of the Twin Peaks Adventist Church in Lewisville shared that the flooding began in their area during prayer meeting last Wednesday evening. Approximately 20 members had gathered for prayer meeting when water started flooding into the church and filling the basement.

The head elder called a phone tree alerting members, and within minutes there were about 50 people at the church building a makeshift dam to divert the river of water that was flooding the church.

Before they could divert all the water, about two inches had accumulated in the basement of the church. One member with an industrial shop-vacuum was able to get most of the standing water out of the basement, while other members rushed to rent carpet cleaners.

By the time the wet, weary church members left, they had been able to extract the rest of the water from the downstairs carpet, but there was considerable dampness left behind. Jones called a restoration company to come to dry out their carpets with fans and dehumidifiers. They were told that they would be added to a list, since there were over 800 calls in ahead of them.

On Friday, with many of the roads impassable because of flooding, Jones headed out to see if it was even possible to drive to the church. He spotted a restoration company van parked on the side of the road. He spoke to the driver and told him about the Twin Peaks church basement. The driver said, “It’s the weekend, and this is the Lord’s house, so I’ll come set up some fans and a dehumidifier for you right now.” Because of that little miracle, the Twin Peaks church basement is back to normal already and won’t even need to report an insurance claim.

“If we hadn’t had a good attendance at our prayer meeting,” says Jones, “we would have certainly had the entire basement flooded!” He continues, “But that prayer meeting turned into the fastest ‘church work bee’ in history! I’m so thankful for all the members who showed up to help us avoid a major calamity.”

Please continue to pray for the thousands that have been impacted by this disaster.

Cathy Kissner, Rocky Mountain Adventist Community Services and Disaster. Response director, reports that emergency supplies are being positioned near the Colorado flood areas for distribution. You may donate to ACS/DR by visiting http://bit.ly/acs-colorado, or by calling 800-381-7171.